Dr. N Mohan
CEO Clarks Reliance Footwear Private Limited
Consumer awareness on foot health needs to improve to a large extent
Clarks Reliance Footwear Private Limited manufactures and retails footwear through online in India. The company offers shoes, boots, and sandals. Dr. N Mohan, who leads the Clarks brand in India, speaks to Fibre2Fashion about the footwear market, and the challenges and opportunities in India.
How would you describe the market for footwear in India? What has changed in the last five years?
Footwear industry in India has gone through phenomenal evolution. Footwear is no longer a mere functional necessity; it has become a fashion statement of individuals reflecting their attitudes. In fact, footwear is one of the fastest growing segments, slated to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent year-on-year. We are the second largest consumer of footwear in the world, second to China and we have an excellent opportunity to double the consumption over the next 5-7 years.
Recent research (CIFI- Karysalis Research) has indicated that footwear business in India will grow to 6 billion pairs by way of consumption by 2029-2030.
The world is looking towards India both as a sourcing base as well as the fastest growing consumer market. We are in a unique position.
Which are your best performing footwear categories online and in-store?
Clarks is a 200-year-old brand which continuously innovates keeping the emerging trends in mind. We came up with our version of Athleisure which has done exceedingly well. In fact, our Cloudsteppers collections are a big hit with our wholesale and online partners. This group of shoes, we have expanded fast, offering the best of the technology as well as comfort and lightness. These shoes are extra light, breathable, flexible and keep the feet always fresh. This category performs well. In addition to these, we have innovated on ladies’ dress shoes by improving the style quotient without compromising the comfort bit. As a result, today 55 per cent of our contribution in sales comes from ladies’ shoes.
What innovations in footwear technology and feet health do you plan to bring to India?
As advised, foot health is paramount to anything we do at Clarks. Every shoe we design and develop makes sure that our products enable the natural movement of the feet.
We have perfected the feet science by offering some of the best technologies to provide ultimate comfort, breathability, and freshness. To name a few:
Cushion Plus: This technology provides ultimate underfoot cushioning for comfort and breathability. A complete underfoot cushioning is done, and a cushion pad is placed under the heel to reduce stress, plus a dual density cushion is placed under the ball of the boot to reduce strain and enhance comfort.
Cushion Soft: This comfort technology offers supreme softness and lasting comfort, Cushion Soft’s high-rebound foam inlay is cleverly concealed inside the shoe to absorb the impact of every step.
Ortholite: The world’s leading open-cell foam technology, Ortholite helps to absorb impact, not only delivering long-lasting cushioning, but breathability and unapparelled comfort as well.
Active Air: The first shoe technology to harness the power of air, Active Air uses underfoot pods to circulate air, delivering maximum breathability, exceptional cushioning and unbeatable comfort.
GORE-TEX: Our GORE-TEX products are layered with a GORE-TEX membrane. Pores allow water vapour to pass through, but they’re small enough to prevent water drops from coming in.
How many MBOs and EBOs does your brand have? What is the expansion plan with regards to this?
We have 34 EBOs at present and will be adding another 10 EBOs by the end of this year. As far as MBOs are concerned, we are very well distributed across the country with a presence in about 700+ MBOs. In the MBO format, we retail both through the leading shoe chains as well as clothing retailers as partners plus regional chains.
Do you plan to get into a more aggressive e-commerce model soon? Please share a few details.
E-commerce is an integral and important part of our business. We have been aggressively pursuing this channel. It is because our brand being aspirational is a big hit with younger customers who live in the emerging metros. We expect our e-commerce business share to go up quite drastically this year.
What kind strategic changes have you implemented in the business model post pandemic?
Post pandemic we have done the following interventions:
We revisited our product offering and corrected the same based on the new normal. For example, we brought in more casuals and athleisure products always embracing the Clarks Core Values.
We enhanced our focus on digital commerce.
We revisited our entire EBO portfolio and our MBO presence and exited unprofitable doors. Corrected product offerings in line with the channel characteristics.
Revamped our stores and renovated them to match the brand image and ethos. Trained and groomed our staff to create customer experiences at the shop floor.
Increased our distribution network.
What has been your growth for the current fiscal? What is the expected growth for the next one?
We are looking at posting at least a 25 per cent growth over 2019-20 levels and estimating to grow at the rate of 20 per cent annually.
What are the biggest challenges, drivers, risks and opportunities the Indian footwear market presents?
The first and foremost challenge is the consumer awareness on differentiation between a good footwear and not so good footwear. The consumer awareness on foot health still needs to improve to a large extent. We have a very compromising and accommodating society and it is the responsibility of brands like us with high integrity to bring awareness on foot health. At Clarks, in everything we do, foot health plays an important role. Our feet carry the entire weight of the body and all our nerves with connections to various organs end at our feet.
The foot and ankle form a complex system which consists of 28 bones, 33 joints, 112 ligaments, controlled by 13 extrinsic and 21 intrinsic muscles. It is imperative to create a good footwear that is in sync with our natural body movements. All our footwear enables natural and free movements of the foot inside our shoes which keeps the feet fresh.
In terms of risks, another bout of COVID-19 will retard the growth.
Opportunities are phenomenal, consumer awareness is improving in this category and with the focus on this category we are looking for an excellent growth going forward.
Which are your best performing markets?
For us in India, North and West are the best performing markets while South is catching up fast with the introduction of more open footwear category in our product mix.
What are your plans concerning penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 towns?
We will be increasing our distribution network partnering with key retailers in tier-2 and tier-3 locations. In fact, being an aspirational brand in these locations, we are actively pursuing expansion by partnering with good retailers. The second strategy is to increase our online focus, as we can service these customers using our online touchpoints as well as with our online partners.
Published on: 25/05/2022
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
